For the second consecutive year, we had incredible weather for our fishing trip out of Seward. Unfortunately, we did not catch as many silvers as last year. We knew we were a bit early for the coho run, but my buddy started a new job this spring, and he lost his time-off flexibility. Still, we did okay on cohos, and we did extremely well catching rockfish. There are 102 known species of rockfish, with 30 of them in the Gulf of Alaska. We caught several yelloweye rockfish, which are bright orange in color, and a couple of tiger rockfish, which are orange with black stripes.

I should stress the reality, that weather like this is extremely rare, and welcome, in the Seward area. To the left of the above photo is Bear Glacier, which the deck hand said hadn’t been visible for two weeks.

Once we started to get bait ready, the seagulls magically appeared. The deck hand threw several herring scraps up in the air, for the seagulls to catch. That action not only increased their numbers, but their aggressiveness too.

The ride out to the fishing area was to be 45 minutes, but wildlife viewing increased that time frame. We saw otters galore, as well as a group of sea lions in the above pic. There were about a dozen sea lions dozing in the sun, along this small island’s shoreline.

We also came across two orcas in the Bay. One adult, probably the mother, and her calf. It’s not a good pic, with the boat rocking, and the zoom way up. The fin of one of the orcas, and the water vapor from its blowhole is just visible in the center of the frame. The initial sighting was as close as they came to the boat. At one point, my buddy said, “You know they are going to pop up on the other side.” Sure enough, the two orcas did resurface off the opposite deck. At this point, I finally relented and pulled my phone out of my waterproof pocket, to catch this final glimpse of the orca. My apologies for being slow, but I had cohos on my mind.

Back from our fishing trip to Seward, Alaska. Here are just a few of the Seward Sights:

Upon arrival, we hit the beach in late afternoon to wet our lines. This seagull watched patiently, hoping we would eventually catch it a salmon dinner.

Apparently, Seward is the Mural Capital of Alaska, a tidbit that had eluded me up until this past week. This one graces the wall of The Fish House, which is a great place to pick up any gear that one leaves in Fairbanks. It is also a pretty kick-ass hardware store.

Seward is the southern terminus for the Alaska Railroad. Across the street from the little depot, is one of the best breakfast places in town, called The Smoke Shack. This small diner is located in a complex known as The Train Rec. Made up of several retired Alaska Railroad cars, The Train Rec has a great view of the harbor.

A curious brown bear approached a visitor in Katmai National Park, and pawed at the visitor’s pant leg recently. That bear then wandered off. In a second incident, a brown bear was being chased by another brown bear through Brooks Camp, and a worker at Brooks Lodge was “pawed”. Neither bear, nor person was injured in the pawings.

Katmai draws a large concentration of brown bears once the salmon start to run, which also brings the visitors to view the fishing bears. Some interaction would be expected, but what is really unusual about these events, is that the last time a bear made physical contact with a human in Katmai was 20 years ago. That really is a phenomenal safety record, especially with the unpredictability of both species.

Park Rangers believe the main cause of the interactions, is due to the high number of subadult bears at Brooks River this year. A subadult is a bear between 2.5 and 5 years old. They naturally like to chase each other, and are trying to feel out their place in the hierarchy. The last time Katmai had a similar number of subadult brown bears, was roughly 20 years ago.

The host of some show called Barn Find Hunter has been touring Alaska in his 1965 Shelby Cobra. His tour, which includes three more Cobras and their passengers, had stopped in Girdwood overnight. Girdwood is a small community south of Anchorage, just off of the Seward Highway.

On Wednesday morning, it was obvious that the Cobra had been broken into during the night. There were prints all over the car, some dents in the rear fender, and the convertible top had been ripped open.

Alaska State Troopers, called to the crime scene, confirmed what was apparent from the tracks in the mud.

“Grizzly”.

The stolen item? A small package of Fig Newtons, that had been left behind the seat.